You're reading: Court session under separate episode in Lutsenko case moved to April 23

A session of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court to consider a criminal case on charges brought against former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and defendants Volodymyr Tarasenko and Oleh Pavlenov, regarding the illegal organization of surveillance as part of an investigation into a criminal case on the poisoning of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko (2000-2005) when he was a presidential candidate, has been moved to 9:30 a.m. on April 23.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that the judge of the Pechersky District Court presiding at the case, Olena Nedushevska, had made this decision due to the fact that Lutsenko was not brought for the session from the Lukyanivsky pre-trial detention center.

Both prosecutors and the defense team declined to hear the case without Lutsenko.

The former interior minister was not delivered to the court session due to the fact that he "is listed in Kyiv’s Court of Appeals," the court said.

Lutsenko’s defense lawyer, Oleksiy Bahanets, told reporters that "the ex-minister cannot be listed only in the Court of Appeals."

"In the Court of Appeals, he is listed in the case under which a verdict was given. And in the case that was combined into a separate proceeding, he must be listed in the Pechersky District Court. There should be no problems with Lutsenko’s delivery [to a court session]," he said.